insulation
Hi All, Recently bought into a new construction building (about 3 years old) and it does not seem to be well insulated. Is there 1. a way to find out if insulation was done correctly in building (all units complain of same issue) 2. is there a specialist in engineering we would have to hire…
Hi All,
Recently bought into a new construction building (about 3 years old) and it does not seem to be well insulated. Is there 1. a way to find out if insulation was done correctly in building (all units complain of same issue) 2. is there a specialist in engineering we would have to hire to look into this. 3. anyone out there living in modern glass and metal homes have similar issue?
thanks as always….
thanks you so much diamond 67. At least we have a starting point now.
This is fascinating. Thank you for this information.
He is completely correct. It’s good advice , good luck.
Since your building was built about three years ago, it was mostly likely supposed to be built according to the 2004 or 2007 version of the NYS Energy Code. Unfortunately, NYC did not strongly enforce the code back then. (They do more so now.)
Most new construction that I’ve seen has been quite horrible in terms of energy efficiency and insulation unless it was particularly designed (and therefore probably also advertised) as energy efficient.
Also, the more glass you have, the colder you will feel. It’s very difficult to get good interior comfort near floor-to-ceiling glass unless there is a radiator along the base of the wall. It’s just an inefficient design. You can try heavy curtains.
So to answer your questions more directly:
1 – Most likely your building was constructed to code at the time which doesn’t say much. Even if it wasn’t to code, you would probably have little recourse.
If you really want to check, you’ll need to expose the insulation by some means which usually entails opening the wall from the inside. If the construction is metal studs, it really doesn’t matter how much fluffy (fiberglass) insulation is in the cavity since the metal studs defeat the purpose. What you really want is exterior continuous rigid insulation which is very unlikely in your case.
2 – You can hire an energy efficiency engineer or possibly even have National Grid come out to take a look. Two companies you could look into are BritePower or SWA. I’m not sure if they work on such small projects but could possibly point you in the right direction. A contractor that truly does “green” (and not just bamboo flooring) could probably give you more advice.
3 – I live in an uninsulated brick apartment building built in 1915. Energy-efficiency-wise it’s probably about as good as what you bought.
Sorry for the bad news but until consumers start addressing quality in construction and energy efficiency (which relates directly to interior comfort) developers will continue to build crap.
Unfortunately what sells these days are granite countertops and stainless steel appliances. They should at least be Energy Star appliances.